1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing device and method, and a program, and particularly relates to an information processing device and method, and a program, whereby a moving image having a high frame rate can be readily subjected to variable playback.
2. Description of the Related Art
Existing typical image compression systems include the MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) system, the JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) system, and so forth, which have been standardized by ISO (International Standards Organization).
Of the MPEG system, a system called MPEG-2 has been employed for compressing an HDTV (High Definition Television) interlaced moving image in BS (Broadcasting Satellite) digital broadcasting, which the Japanese public has become accustomed to. Also, contents to be recorded in a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) medium and sold are also compressed and encoded by this MPEG-2 system.
A TV (Television) signal is configured of images of 30 frames (60 fields) per one second, but it has been pointed out that with the number of images being of such a level, the reproducibility of a high-speed moving object is poor. Therefore, in recent years, the need of handling moving images with a frame rate several times thereof, for example, a moving image having a high frame rate of 120 frames per second to 240 frames per second, has been increasing.
However, increasing the frame rate several fold increases the data rate proportionately, so it becomes difficult to perform encoding processing on the fly (in real time) without delay, and particularly, there has been the possibility that realization of hardware, which can encode in real time with the MPEG system using inter frame compression, might turn out to be impractical due to problems such as cost.
In order to avoid such a problem, a method has been disclosed wherein a plurality of codecs of an intra encoding system are arrayed, and compression encoding is performed with time sharing (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-104694).
With Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-104694, in order to encode a moving image in high efficiency, such as 525/60 p (a progressive image of which the horizontal resolution is 525 lines, and the frame rate is 60 frames per second), 1080/60 p (a progressive image of which the horizontal resolution is 1080 lines, and the frame rate is 60 frames per second), and so forth, a technique has been disclosed wherein the sum signal and difference signal of image signals between frames are extracted every two frames, and each of the extracted signals is encoded, thereby controlling the ratio between the coding bit rate of the sum signal and the coding bit rate of the difference signal.